Difference between Craigslist and Kijiji
Among the major online classifieds websites on the Internet, Craigslist and Kijiji are drawing in the lion’s share of the online crowd. Both have their strengths and weaknesses of course, but overall, both seem to be up to the task of providing an effective medium for people to place ads for a varying array of concerns. Nevertheless, a closer look at the two should give you a better idea of which one is better suited to your needs.
In View
In terms of visual impact, Kijiji has a noticeable edge over Craigslist, since the latter has a predominantly text-based interface that is…well, quite bland, to put it bluntly. Although this results in faster loading Craigslist pages, it certainly isn't that much to look at. For its part, Kijiji has a more colorful and professional looking website, although the visual appeal is dampened somewhat by the inclusion of loads of ads from eBay affiliates. To its credit though, Kijiji does provide extensive ad creation and customization features, which makes it a lot easier for users to tailor their ads the way they want them to look. With Craigslist, you will have to know HTML in order to customize your page and the results still won't be as impressive as that which you can get from Kijiji.
In Use
Craigslist is also let down by a very limited interface which doesn’t even provide the option to delete old ads, all of which stay active for up to 45 days. To its credit though, Craigslist has no ads from external advertisers at all and they don’t send bothersome ads to your email address either. Not so with Kijiji, which like eBay has been known to spam user’s email inboxes with advertisements proposing any number of things from upgrading your account or paying for your listing. Kijiji also has the annoying trait of censoring your ad’s body copy in a bid to limit long distance transactions and encourage local trading.
Drawing Power
Craigslist ads are unfortunately online only for 45 days. While this may be too long for people who have closed a transaction and have no option but to wait until the ad expires before it is taken down, it often isn't long enough to garner a fair number of views. Furthermore, there is no easy way to re-post your ad in Craigslist. With Kijiji, your ad will stay online for up to 90 days and users can easily re-post their ad by way of a convenient link.
Summary
Craigslist
- Primarily text based
- Faster page loading
- No advertisements sent to your email address
- Doesn't allow the user deletion of old ads
- Ads are only active for 45 days
Kijiji
- Slick and easy to use advertisement form
- Attractive and colorful site design
- Pages take a longer time to load
- Ads are conveniently organized in an easy to access fashion
- Ads stay active for up to 90 days
- Allows users to re-post ads easily
- Has a lot of advertisements
- eBay will spam your email address
- Censors your ad copy
